Things Change
by harryHotter669
Summary: Lily has hated James since 1st year, but James changes over the summer before 7th year. What will Lily do? What about Sirius and Kattie? Will the cheese people take over the world? Read to find out!(Rated just in case for possible scenes in the future
1. The Beginning of Change

AN: Hello everyone! This is Jo and Kathy reporting for duty! lol..anyways..time for the wonderful disclaimer... Disclaimer: Everything that you recognize from the Harry Potter books belongs to J.K..everything that you don't recognize belongs to the evil cheese people who are trying to take over the world, starting with   
  
Chapter 1  
  
The Beginning of Change  
  
As Lily Evans strolled through the barrier dividing platform nine and three quarters from the muggle world, she wondered what surprises her 7th year at Hogwarts would present her with. Lily Evans was a very original girl. She was very outspoken, especially when it came to her opinions on James Potter. In her opinion, James Potter was an arrogant prat. She pondered about the schemes that Potter could have possibly conceived over the summer to make her life miserable. No Lily thought to herself I will not waste my last year at Hogwarts thinking about Potter.  
  
Lily was jolted out of her reverence by a voice calling her name over the roar of the crowd. "Lily! Over here, I already found a compartment!"  
  
Lily looked over to the source of the voice, her best friend since her first journey on the Hogwarts Express, Katrina Bianco (pronounced cat- ee), leaning out of a window of a compartment window. "Kattie! How are you? I haven't seen you in so long!" exclaimed Lily who was obviously very excited to see her friend once again "Lily, we saw each other yesterday in Diagon Alley. Remember? Come on, the train is about to leave!" yelled Kattie Just as Lily was about to board the train, there was a loud crash behind her, coming from the direction of the barrier.  
  
James Potter was late. He had overslept this morning, waking up to his best friend, Sirius Black, pouring a bucket of water over his head. Needless to say, he was a tad grumpy. He was in such a hurry to get onto the platform that he barely noticed someone else running at it from the other direction. The result of this was that James and the other individual collided just after they exited the barrier. James looked over and realized that the person he had collided with just happened to be the one and only Severus Snape. James took a deep breath and remembered what had happened at the beginning of the summer.  
  
James had just gotten a pensive from his parents for his 17th birthday and was anxious to remove all memories of Severus Snape from his mind so he could have an enjoyable, carefree summer. He put the pensive down on the desk in his elaborately furnished room and put his wand to his temple as to extract these unpleasant memories. As he pulled out his various memories, one by one, he started to think about his conduct throught the past six years at Hogwarts. He found himself looking at his actions towards Snape and a variety of others and seeing himself in a new light. Often, he found himself thinking thoughts along the lines of: "Did I really do that? How could I have been so cruel? Lily was right, I was such a jerk." Mainly, his thoughts drifted to Lily Evans. She was probably the only girl at Hogwarts who could resist the Potter charm. Many a time he found himself on the receiving end of her famous evil glare of doom, reserved especially for the people that she despised i.e. James, James, and..James. James found himself wishing that he had been more considerate. At that moment, James made a pact with himself. No more picking on innocent people for his own amusement.  
  
James snapped back to reality as he realized that Snape was still glaring at him, obviously waiting for a hex or curse to be thrown in his direction. People were staring out of their compartment windows, eager to see how James would humiliate "Snivellus" today. Surprisingly, James bent down and picked up the books that Snape had dropped after their collision and handed them back to him. Then he extended his hand. Snape glared at his hand as if he had a contagious disease. "What do you think you're doing Potter?" Snape inquired "Just trying to be friendly." James smiled and dragged his trunk over to find a compartment on the quickly filling train "Oy, James! What was that about?" yelled James' best friend Sirius "I'll explain later" James answered. Surprisingly, James was pleased by his own kindness toward his worst enemy. It gave him a feeling of satisfaction, knowing that he was able to resist the temptation to hex Snape into oblivion. This year was going to be very interesting. 


	2. What's up with that?

AN: Hello again everyone! It works! We got our first chapter posted and we are very excited! Yay! We should throw a 9 hour anniversary party for our story! Haha. anyways, we tried to double space the last chapter, but it didn't work! Oh no! Ya, so we're gonna see if it works this time and if it doesn't just bear with us. Reviews make the world go round!  
  
Chapter 2  
  
What's Up with That?  
  
Lily gaped at James' retreating back as he entered the Hogwarts Express. Did that just happen? she found herself thinking. She pinched herself lightly to make sure she wasn't dreaming. "Ow!" Lily exclaimed. Apparently she had pinched herself harder than she thought.  
  
"Lily, are you ok?" Kattie shouted out the compartment window.  
  
"Did you see that?" Lily asked, ignoring Kattie's question.  
  
"See what?" Apparently Kattie hadn't been paying attention to the scene that had taken place on the platform.  
  
"I'll fill you in when I get inside." Lily fought her way through the crowd to get on the train.  
  
As James walked through the Hogwarts Express corridor, he received many questioning stares from his peers. It was what he was expecting, after all, in all his years at Hogwarts, he had never passed up the chance to confront Snape, especially in front of a crowd. Suddenly two hands reached out from a compartment and pulled him inside. Unfortunately he lost his balance and fell crashing to the floor, right on top of his best friend, Sirius Black.  
  
"I know you're excited to see me James but maybe we should find a more private place"  
  
" Sirius?"  
  
"Ya, James?"  
  
"Shut up"  
  
"Okee dokee artichokee!" ( sorry I just had to put that in -Jo )  
  
James got up off of the floor just as his other best friend and partner in crime, Remus Lupin appeared in the compartment.  
  
"There you are James, we've been looking all over for you! What was up with that scene outside on the platform? Have you finally decided to change your ways?" Remus said jokingly. He knew James would grow up eventually, but he didn't expect that it would happen for a while yet. What had happened outside probably was in preparation for a prank or something, Remus resolved in his mind ( haha -Jo )  
  
James spent the next hour explaining the revelations that he had over the summer to his 3 friends ( yes we are including Peter in this story, he is a stupid-head but unfortunately he was one of their friends..urgh..Sirius is alive!!! I don't have a book down my trousers!!!( haha go watch Notting Hill )-Jo ). At the end of the story there was a long silence. All of his friends were staring at him with open mouths, as if waiting for the punchline to a very bad joke. "You're kidding me right?" Sirius exclaimed after a few minutes.  
  
"He didn't sound like he was joking to me, Sirius. I told you he'd grow up someday!  
  
Now we're just waiting for you." He muttered under his breath.  
  
"I heard that!" Sirius exclaimed while hitting Remus repeatedly in the head with a dead swordfish ( sorry that came to me in a burst of inspiration-Jo) (WHAT??????!!-Kathy)  
  
"Sirius, what's with the dead swordfish?" Remus exclaimed while trying to escape from his best friend who was now throwing blocks of swiss cheese at his retreating back  
  
"Come on you guys, grow up!" James called out. He was still a bit grumpy from being woken up so early by Sirius' antics.  
  
"Oh look who's talking" Peter joked " You're the one who got a walnut stuck up my nose last Christmas!"  
  
Just then, Lily and Kattie walked into the compartment. She was trying to fulfill her head girl duties by patrolling the train for troublemakers AKA the Marauders. She was also very anxious to find out the reason for the little display that James had put on on the platform. She had hoped that she wouldn't actually have to confront him about it, but Kattie wanted details.  
  
"What are you four doing in here? And why is there a dead fish on the floor?" She banished the fish with a flick of her wand, along with all of the swiss cheese.  
  
"Hi, Kattie." Sirius said breathily, looking nervous.  
  
"Hey, Sirius! How was your summer?" She exclaimed, using her eyes to urge Lily to go talk to James. Lily look mortified at the thought, but James saved her the trouble by coming over and sitting down next to her. He gave her a bright smile, and tried to start a conversation.  
  
"Hey Lils. How was your summer?"  
  
"Cut the act Potter" Lily snarled "I don't know what you're up to but I want to know the reason behind what happened on the platform."  
  
"Lils, you have so little faith in me. You don't think that I'm capable of being a decent person?" James joked, trying to mask the fact that he was really hurt.  
  
"No, I don't" Lily replied scathingly. Lily was waging a mental battle with herself. Could it be possible that Potter was—no, he must've been planning for a prank. He would never change.  
  
AN: We decided to end the chapter there. We'll post again ASAP, but I'm not sure when that will be. Did you like my little thing with the swordfish and Swiss cheese?  
  
Haha. -jo ( Kathy would like to make it clear that she takes no responsibility for the "swordfish incident")  
  
Review review review! 


	3. A pain in the Ankle

AN: Hey, everyone!!! Sorry it took so long to update. We've been really busy and never had a chance to get together and write. We apologize for making you suffer at the hands of our busy schedule, because we know your tortured souls have been counting the days until you could find out what would happen next!  
  
Disclaimer: Everything that you recognize from the Harry Potter books belongs to J.K.. Everything that you don't recognize belongs to the evil cheese people who are trying to take over the world, starting with   
  
And now, without any further ado, on with chapter 3!!!!!  
  
"Lily...Lils, wake up. We're here," Lily heard Kattie say.  
  
"Mmmmmm..." Lily groaned in response. She was still half asleep and didn't want to get up yet. She was curled up to something warm. Slowly, she regained consciousness and realized it was a person. She looked up and quickly recovered what was left of her wakefulness.  
  
"POTTER!!!" She yelled while jumping away from him. In doing so, her foot caught on someone's trunk, making her trip and fall with a resounding thud. James, who had still been asleep until his name had been screamed, quickly awoke and, after seeing what happened, bent down to help her off the floor of the compartment.  
  
"Lily! Are you alright?" he questioned, holding out his hand.  
  
"Get away! I'm fine!" She said through her gritted teeth. She looked down at her throbbing ankle as it started to swell up like a balloon. She tried to push herself up, only to collapse again. James, whose years of being a chaser on the Gryfindor Quidditch team had given him reflexes as quick as his Comet 260, caught her before she hit the ground.  
  
"No you're not. Let's get you to the hospital wing." With that, James scooped her up and carried her out of the compartment, Kattie following behind her with an expression somewhere between sympathetic of her friend's pain and snickering because of Lily's apparent dislike of her rescuer.  
  
Outside, James and Kattie split up to find the rest of the Marauders, Lily protesting the whole way.  
  
"Potter! Put me down. My ankle's fine! Let go! I can walk perfectly well." James, knowing that none of this was true, decided to tune her out as he searched for his friends.  
  
"Oi! James! Over here!" James saw Sirius leaning out of a carriage pulled by a demonic-looking horse. "What happened to Lily? Wow, Prongsie. We leave you alone for five minutes and you've already managed to hurt someone. We ran out when the train got here so we could get a good carriage. We wouldn't want one like last time with a loose wheel. The squeaking nearly drove me nuts. I..." Just then, Kattie found the group. Sirius's seemingly endless chatter suddenly died down.  
  
"There you guys are! Are we going to get in or what? Lily, your ankle looks like it's getting worse," she said as she got in the carriage and then turned around to help James with Lily.  
  
"It's fine!" she said, wanting Potter to put her down already. In reality, the ankle in question was starting to turn a purplish tint. Finally James set her down in a seat in the carriage.  
  
"What exactly happened to Lily's ankle?" Remus asked.  
  
"Oh. Lily jumped up and fell on it when she'd realized she was sleeping on James," Kattie responded. "Don't worry. It was after I got a picture," she said, smiling at Sirius, who had said in the compartment that he wanted a copy of it. Lily just glared at her.  
  
The carriages made their way to the castle. Lily would have started becoming nostalgic if her ankle hadn't been is so much pain. When they finally arrived, the six of them, James carrying Lily again, headed toward the castle with the rest of the throng, but all but one broke apart from the rest once they got through the oak front doors.  
  
"Where's Peter?" Remus asked as they started up the marble staircase, skipping the trick step. That's what made him remember his missing friend in the first place, because Peter always forgot about the step.  
  
"I dunno. You don't think he went to the Great Hall with the rest, do you?" James asked.  
  
"Maybe. Oh well, we'll find him after the feast," Sirius responded nonchalantly.  
  
They arrived at the hospital wing. While Sirius shouted for Madam Pomfrey, James went to set Lily down on one of the hospital beds. When the young nurse came out of her office, she took one look at Lily before embarking on one of her infamous fusses.  
  
"What happened? Why didn't you come sooner? She'll probably have to stay the night." She turned and glared accusingly at James, "Mr. Potter, I know this has something to do with you. What did you do to her this time? This is why dueling isn't allowed in the corridors!"  
  
"Madam Pomfrey, I tripped and fell on my ankle. James didn't do it and he wasn't dueling," Lily began to explain. As much as I hate to be getting Potter out of a detention he probably deserves for something he didn't get caught doing, she thought, I, as Head Girl, can't lie to a member of the staff.  
  
James smiled his thanks to her. Maybe, he thought, Lily and I could become friends, since we'll have to work together so often this year.  
  
Madam Pomfrey fixed Lily's ankle in a flick of a wand, but they were delayed an hour and a half longer so she could double and triple check for anything else that could possibly be wrong with her. Not to mention pouring another revolting potion down her throat whenever she though of it. Madam Pomfrey magicked them a plate of sandwiches after Sirius's stomach made a rather loud grumble. By the time could leave, the feast was over and students were heading for their dormitories. The group met up with Peter as they entered the Gryffindor common room.  
  
"Hey! Why weren't you guys at the feast? It was delicious! Too bad the treacle tart disappeared before I could get thirds, though. By the way, congratulations on making Head, Lily! You too, James."  
  
Lily was half way through her "Thank you" before Peter's last three words managed to sink in. "You made head boy? Oh, great!" And with that she rushed up the girls' staircase to her dormitory to contemplate how horrible the next ten months would be. Kattie hurriedly said good-bye to the boys and ran after her.  
  
"Was it something I said?" Peter asked, confused.  
  
"Yes, it was," Sirius answered before conjuring another swordfish and chasing him up the boys' staircase. James and Remus sighed and followed their friends up to the dormitories.  
  
AN: Yay! An author's note from me!! I really have nothing to say...because I didn't write this chapter, just edited it. So all of you need to thank Kat profusely for getting our story rolling again. REVIEW OR DIE. Please? 3 Jo 


	4. Truce?

Ch. 4 Truce?  
  
The next morning, Lily was still in a bad mood. She sat very quietly during breakfast pondering, as McGonagall passed her her class schedule. She couldn't imagine what Dumbledore could have been thinking by making James Potter, leader of the Marauders and devoted prankster, Head Boy. He was the kind of person that all six of their previous Head Boys hated!  
  
Lily was also dreading the prefect meetings to come. Was Dumbledore trying to punish her?!!! Lily couldn't think of anything she could have possibly done to make the headmaster THAT upset.  
  
Lily's thoughts were interrupted by the object of her thoughts entering the Great Hall. In previous years, the Marauders always entered the Great hall for meals the same way: first, there would be a loud bang as the door slammed open, as if they wanted to announce their entrance. Then, all four boys came sauntering in, talking loudly or laughing at something one of them said. James and Sirius would wink at various members of their fan clubs and, if they were in a good mood, send random hexes at the Slytherin table. Remus would walk a few paces behind them, looking up from his book to send his friends a glare, and Peter would scamper around them trying in vain to get involved in the conversation.  
  
That is how it normally was, and that was why Lily was very surprised when she saw Sirius saunter in, laughing very loudly at something he just said, wink at Kattie once, and turn Snape's hair green. Behind him, Remus looked up from Hogwarts, A History to send him a glare, while Peter scurried around him, trying to get into the conversation Sirius was having with himself. James wandered in behind them, apparently deep in thought.  
  
Lily's mouth dropped to the ground, she turned to Kattie, who was still smiling like a maniac because Sirius had winked at her. She made a mental note to tease her about it later, for there were more pressing matters at the moment. She questioned her friend. "Did you just see that? What's gotten in to James today?"  
  
"Since when do you care so much about the way James enters a room?" Kattie responded with a question. She had known for a long time that Lily liked James. The incessant bickering couldn't be for no reason. Now she was just waiting for Lily to figure out that she liked him.  
  
"I'm serious!" Lily exclaimed at her friend. She turned away from the Marauders so she didn't notice their choice of seats.  
  
"No you're not! I am!" Sirius said as he sat down on the other side of Kattie, who quickly hit him in the back of the head.  
  
(Kathy: I'm sorry for that, but no L/J fanfic is complete without the corny Sirius/serious joke! Jo: throws tomatoes Kathy: dodges tomatoes Hey!!)  
  
Lily wasn't paying attention. She was staring at James, who was looking hesitant about sitting that close to Lily while she was still mad at him. He made up his mind and sat across from her, and, not hearing his last name screamed in rage, relaxed a bit.  
  
Lily made up her mind. "Pott— I mean James?" she said with strained politeness.  
  
"Huh?" James was shocked at the civility and stared at Lily back.  
  
"I just decided," she continued, "that if we're gonna have to be working together all year, we might as well end the quarrelling. It will make everyone's life much easier. Truce?"  
  
"Are you serious?" He asked. In the corner of his eye, he saw that Sirius was about to comment, but Kattie swiftly hit him in the head again before he could even get a syllable out. "You'll agree not to fight anymore, Lily?" He asked.  
  
"Of course. It will make both our jobs easier and, as long as you refrain from being a prat, I'll stop yelling at you for it."  
  
"Deal." He said, shaking her hand. Their friends just stared until James turned to all of them with a "What are you looking at?" and started to pile food onto his plate.  
  
With the agreement between Lily and James, the tension between the two groups of friends eased gradually away. Come the next Monday and the day of the first Prefect meeting, the two were almost on friendly terms. Almost.  
  
Bang! The portrait guarding the secret entrance to the Head's room was thrown open, to the dismay of the centaur within the frame, and Lily Evans stormed in. "James Potter!!!" she cried, "What the heck did you do with the notes to the prefect meeting? It starts in fifteen minutes!"  
  
James, who was sitting in an armchair in front of the fire trying to get his Divination essay done before the meeting, (Kathy: stupid class if you ask me, even though Emma Thompson did an excellent job) only shrugged. He was used to these rants, having been is so close proximity with Lily for a week now.  
  
"What does is that supposed to mean? If you lost those notes, James, I'll..."  
  
James, who had just finished the last sentence of his essay, cut her off. "I don't have the notes, Lily, remember?" He said in an amused voice. "You took them because you said that I would just loose them."  
  
"Well, then what did I do with them?" she asked, trying to cover up her embarrassment.  
  
"I don't know. Try this," he said as he took out his wand. "Accio Prefect Notes!" As he said it, a few slightly crumpled pieces of paper flew out of Lily's bag and into his outstretched hand. "Now who's the irresponsible one?" he said with a smile.  
  
Lily tried to be mad, she really did. She furrowed her eyebrows and tried to glare at James, but as she stared at his amused look and thought of the irony of what had just happened, she couldn't contain it anymore. She just started cracking up, and couldn't stop. Then she started laughing because she couldn't stop laughing, and the situation basically snowballed from there. And that is how the prefects found her ten minutes later: rolling on the floor laughing her head off. 


End file.
